Tribute to Rick Jones

I wrote a tribute not too long ago to Tom Negoshian who coached his last game at North Farmington High School before retiring and I referenced how this year would be the end of an era at North Farmington with his retirement along with the retirement of Rick Jones. So in thinking about what I would write about Rick I started to think back to my experiences with him and the impact he had on me and how I would characterize what he has meant to the community. This one is easy from the standpoint that I can find plenty of great things to say about him, but it’s tough because I don’t have time to write a whole book and it’s hard to find things to say that haven’t been said about him by just about everyone whose lives he has touched.

I am proud to say that I was there when he first returned home to North Farmington after teaching and coaching in Panama City, Florida in 1987. He was my track and field coach at North and I was a captain on that first team of his. He was a great coach and teacher and immediately had an impact on me as someone who was genuine and was doing what he did for the right reasons. I love to tell people how he proof read and corrected my essay on my application to Michigan when I was a senior. I started attending North Farmington games when my oldest brother was a sophomore in 1976 so I have a deep appreciation for the tradition and history of football at North, and I was drawn to that about Mr. Jones because there is NO ONE who is more about uplifting the tradition of North Farmington and the North community than him. After I graduated I never stopped coming back and I got to watch the transformation of the school as he started to stamp his imprint on the school and literally remold the place in his image. If that sounds like hyperbole it really isn’t.....

What’s nice about writing this down on paper is that Rick won’t have a chance to deflect credit to everyone else but himself in the middle of this and deny that he’s different than everyone else and such a special guy. He refuses to acknowledge this - he is humble and modest to a fault. The trip to Africa, bringing the President, prominent authors, and a piece of the World Trade Center to NFHS, instilling how "It's A Great Day To Be A Raider” in every student, connecting everyone to North’s glorious past through all kinds of ways - he would tell you these things are really not so extraordinary - really just simple deeds that make sense for a guy who cares and loves his job and his school and the result of the hard work of a lot of people. He’s not wrong, but does anyone believe that any of these things would have been possible without his leadership? I thought not.

At one point I thought that “throwback” might be a good word to describe what Mr. Jones is about because they don’t make ‘em like him anymore - that type of thing. But that word is not enough when it comes to Rick. I looked it up and it’s defined as “one that is suggestive of or suited to an earlier time or style”. Rick and I talked recently after we celebrated 50 years of Raider football last fall, and he was waxing poetic about how recently he and Ron Holland (North Farmington coaching legend) were discussing and wondering what is it about North Farmington that makes it such a special place? Because it really is - alumni come back from far and wide to support the school and relive a little the special memories they have of the place. Rick Jones said he told Ron Holland that it all goes back to him - that Coach Holland started it all and created a strong sense of pride in the school that meant so much to so many. I told Rick and I’ll repeat it now that I think he is equally responsible since he brought that feeling back and tied the past to the present, and by doing so his legacy will last far into the future with the thousands of students who will always feel connected to North Farmington. So throwback isn’t enough - he has moved North Farmington forward.

Congratulations to Mr. Jones on his retirement - one of the most exceptional people I have ever met in my life and a man I am truly honored to call my friend.

Doug Cohen

March 30th, 2011

Tribute to Coach "Nogo"

Tonight will be the last regular season home basketball game Tom Negoshian will coach at North Farmington High School since he is retiring from coaching. I will be there. While I did not actually play varsity basketball for "Nogo", he coached my brother Jeff in the late 70's and he was (along with head coach Dave Catherman) my first football coach at Warner Middle School in the fall of 1983, and we were undefeated that season going 6-0. It was a great introduction to football and one of the most fun years I had playing. Knowing Nogo for most of my life I can say that he is one of those rare guys that really gets it. He coaches hard but fair, is passionate but also hilarious as most of the best coaches are, and he is a great teacher. He remembers every guy who ever played for him which is a testament to how much he cares about the relationships he builds with the players he develops - a trait that Bo always had. I have to say that as things change and life goes on, I always found a certain comfort in knowing that I could go back to North Farmington and watch Nogo doing his thing, roaming back and forth in front of the bench, yelling (sometimes screaming) at refs, coaching up players, and putting fundamentally sound Raiders out on the hardwood. He absolutely deserves a spot alongside other North Farmington legends with fields and roads named for them such as Holland, Temby, Jones and the others. Rick Jones is also retiring this year which is a whole other story, and this year will signal the end of an era with the retirement of both of these great men, but tonight Nogo deserves his own moment in the spotlight for helping make North Farmington the great place it's been over the years. Thanks Coach! Go North!

Doug's Top 60 albums of the decade

This wasn't easy and I tried to make it 50 but ended up with 60... My criteria for the most part was mostly based on simply what I thought was the best and what I listened to the most (when I wasn't listening to Zeppelin, Hendrix, Marley, or the Stones etc.). I kind of tried to put them in order but the order isn't exact. I didn't want to overrepresent too many bands either unless I was forced to. For example Echo And The Bunnymen released 3 great albums in the 2000's but I just couldn't justify putting all three of them on the list, whereas there was absolutely no denying all three of the last three Gov't Mule albums. These clearly aren't the only great albums of the decade, just thought it would be fun to put a list together of some of my favorites. Enjoy...

1. Gov't Mule - High & Mighty

2. Ice Cube - Laugh Now, Cry Later

3. The Secret Machines - Now Here Is Nowhere

4. The Allman Brothers Band - Hittin' The Note

5. Black Sabbath (Heaven And Hell) - The Devil You Know

6. New Order - Get Ready

7. The White Stripes - De Stijl

8. The Church - Untitled #23

9. The Greyb0y Allstars - What Happened To Television?

10. Wolfmother - Wolfmother

11. Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

12. Prince - The Slaughterhouse

13. The Beastie Boys - To The 5 Boroughs

14. Queens Of The Stone Age - Lullabies To Paralyze

15. Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam

16. Gov't Mule - Deja Voodoo

17. Tool - Lateralus

18, Radiohead - Kid A

19. The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan

20. Porcupine Tree - The Incident

21. Slayer - Christ Illusion

22. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

23. Gov't Mule - By A Thread

24. The Church - Forget Yourself

25. Beck - The Information

26. Tool - 10,000 Days

27. Early Man - Closing In

28. Dio - Magica

29. Noctorum - Offer The Light

30. Pearl Jam - Backspacer

31. Beck - Sea Change

32. Jerry Cantrell - Degradation Trip

33. Stone Temple Pilots - Shangri La-Di-Da

34. The White Stripes - Icky Thump

35. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely

36. R.E.M. - Accelerate

37. Ice Cube - Raw Footage

38. Foo Fighters - One By One

39. Kings Of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak

40. Metallica - Death Magnetic

41. Echo And The Bunnymen - Siberia

42. Spirit Caravan - Jug Fulla Sun

43. Tom Petty - Highway Companion

44. Prince - 3121

45. Beck - Modern Guilt

46. Jane's Addiction - Strays

47. The Cure - Bloodflowers

48. Queens Of The Stone Age - R

49. John Mellencamp - Cuttin' Heads

50. Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue

51. Kings Of Leon - Because Of The Times

52. The Church - Uninvited, Like The Clouds

53. Depeche Mode - Sounds Of The Universe

54. The Derek Trucks Band - Songlines

55. New Order - Waiting For The Sirens' Call

56. Nada Surf - Let Go

57. Filter - The Amalgamut

58. Paul Westerberg - Mono/Stereo

59. Ace Frehley - Anomaly

60. Brad - Welcome To Discovery Park

Farewell and R.I.P. - a surreal week

I hope this post coincides with a brief respite from celebrity deaths... this week has been surreal to say the least and I've got a few thoughts.

Michael Jackson - I am a little perplexed by the extreme bombardment of coverage of Michael Jackson's death. Yes I am bummed by it a little, and yes I was a huge fan as a kid. But I will say what has to be said - I knew he would not grow old. Now that doesn't make it any less sad, but it certainly does make it less surprising. I am not in shock over this just because I always had a really bad feeling it would not end well for Michael. His whole life was a tragedy in many respects and he was clearly abused as a child - he had an impossible fantastical life that never let up - it's hard to blame him for not turning out to be perfectly well adjusted. And while the freakshow his life became fascinates people (okay I admit it's a little fascinating), it's the "King of Pop" references and the "millions of fans" who are in mourning etc. etc. etc. that I don't get. Fans of what in recent terms? The guy has made 2 1/2 albums of crap in the last 18 years since Dangerous and that's it! He hasn't been relevant as a current artist in an entire generation. I'll give him that Thriller was the biggest selling album of all time and for a few years he was indeed the biggest star on the planet. The Jackson 5 was great and the Jacksons produced some great music here and there as teenagers, but let's break it down on the "King" as a solo artist. Off The Wall - borderline masterpiece - about 5 absolute classic tracks. Thriller - masterpiece all the way around. I don't really break it out and listen to it often, but I won't deny it's a bonified classic masterpiece. Bad - Good. Okay maybe very good. Do you really love that album all the way through? Really? Like one of your favorites? "Leave Me Alone", "Another Part Of Me", "Just Good Friends", "Liberian Girl" - are these great songs? I don't know.... Dangerous is a damn good album - actually better than Bad. That's where it ends. Maybe this isn't fair I don't know, but Prince as an example has produced no fewer than 20 albums better than everything other than Off The Wall and Thriller, with a few being the equal of either of them. And Prince wrote ALL the material on ALL of those albums and played guitar and in some cases plenty of other instruments on ALL of those albums. Was Michael Jackson a musician? Did he write even the majority of stuff on the couple of albums he made that really mattered?

And so there it is - I find myself criticizing Michael Jackson's body of work in the wake of his tragic death. Not what I want to be doing right now - but I feel like the hyperbole which has been shoved down my throat every time I flip on the TV has forced me to this point. It feels like it's 24 hours a day of Michael Jackson - there are a couple of wars being fought last time I checked. I didn't feel this way the first couple days after it happened, and so let me sincerely bring it back for one last time to say rest in peace Michael and thanks for the memories.

Another case which I'm conflicted about - Steve McNair. I feel badly for his wife and children, and by most accounts he was a guy who was loved and admired by many. A guy who was tough on the field and a guy who gave back to the community. However....... what kind of guy carries on like he did with this 20 year old? Did he deserve to get murdered? Heck no. Did he put himself in a situation that could only end really really really badly for someone - him, wife, kids, mistress? Absolutely. Was he out of his mind for putting himself in a situation like this particular one? Absolutely. Do I want to be speaking badly about a guy who was just killed? No - but how can you not help thinking he played with fire and got burned? His friends are trying to deflect this and talk about how he made a mistake and they hope he will be remembered for the good he did and his play on the field. He will be remembered for those things and he should be - absolutely. Unfortunately he will also be remembered for having an affair with a screwed up 20 year old who shot him to death before killing herself leaving his sons without a dad.

Farrah Fawcett - man did I love her. I actually had "the poster" along with a second one up in my bedroom growing up, and I actually took "the poster" up to college with me and had it up in my dorm room in 1988 long after her peak as the hottest sex symbol in America. Not that she ever really cooled off. I don't think we ever stopped loving her and I will definitely miss Farrah.

Curiously enough on July 1st Alexis Arguello who was the mayor of Managua committed suicide and Karl Malden died at the age of 97... who knew? Goodbye Ed McMahon and Billy Mays too...

Adventures in Consumerland

A few recent experiences - the type I've seemed to experience many times over the years like buying a yesterday's newspaper and being asked by the clerk afterwards if I "grabbed it from the right pile" or complaining to the E.G. Nick's manager about the caked-on dried mud on my baked potato and being told "Well they do grow in the ground sir" - the list goes on and I have two more to add...

Recently at the Taco Bell in Keego Harbor I asked for a cup of water at the drive thru to go with my food and was told they can't do that because they don't have cups for water. This is horrible customer service - I just finished reading a book about word of mouth marketing detailing how the power has shifted to the consumer like never before because of blogs like the one I'm writing. Not that tons of people read this, but they just pissed off and lost a customer over a lousy 10 cent cup that they refused to put a little water in for me. Last I checked the physical properties of water were similar enough to most other digestible liquids that it doesn't require a special cup.

This one is better. I bought a surround sound system to put in our studio in West Bloomfield (Frameable Faces www.frameablefaces.com is my wife's photography studio in the Orchard Mall at Maple and Orchard Lake if you didn't know) and I got a great deal on a Yamaha floor model. The floor model came with the remote control, but when I set it up at the studio I discovered that it was in fact the wrong remote control and would not work with this system. After a couple of phone conversations with ABC and a failure for them to call me back to resolve it like they said they would I went up there with my wrong remote to get some resolution. The first person I spoke to was a guy whose name I think was Tracy. He went into the back to check for remotes but couldn't find one. The conversation then went like this:

Me: So what do I do now?
Tracy: Well when we sell the floor units they come "as is" so......
Me: Yeah but in this case "as is" included the remote control
Tracy: Well obviously it didn't because that's the wrong remote

Can you f--king believe he actually said that to me? Like I'm the dumb ass for falling for the ol' give 'em the wrong remote trick.

Me: Well the problem is it was presented to me as the right remote you see
Tracy: Well I can't help you - you'll have to talk to the manager
Me: Where's the manager

The manager hemmed and hawed, putzed around looking at their universal remote selection and then told me that he'd be willing to refund my money if I wanted to bring the system back. I told him I don't want to bring it back, I want it the way it was sold to me. He passed me off to another guy who ultimately took care of it, having me purchase the remote from a website right there in the store and then refunding the amount on my original sale so the correct remote wouldn't cost me anything. I do love the system I bought, and they did make it right eventually, but they need to evaluate and coach some of the folks they have on the floor there who deal directly with customers.

Ending on a positive note I had a coconut curry fried rice with onions and chicken at Thai Peppers tonight on Orchard Lake Rd in Farmington Hills. Interestingly enough I ordered it and then just for assurance asked if it was good, and the waitress tried to steer me away from it, saying the last person who ordered it took two bites and had enough. I ordered it anyway because A) the food is great there and has been for years even through a couple of ownership changes B) the menu description was what I wanted and C) my curiosity was now raised and I needed to know if it was really that horrible. A bit of a risky move to be sure. I can't remember the name of the dish now, but it was the 6th and last item in the fried rice section of the menu and it was AWESOME. I highly recommend it.

Real vs. Natural, Some new tunes

Stupid item (and subsequent crazed rant) of the day... I noticed while eating my bowl of Banana Nut Cheerios (which is one of the best cereals ever) that on the front cover of the box it advertises the product as being flavored with REAL Banana AND Natural Banana flavor. I'll let you ponder that for a second...


What in blazes is the difference between real bananas and natural banana flavor? So wouldn't natural banana flavor come from an actual banana which they already just told us is in the cereal? I hate the commercial food industry with its high fructose corn syrup, mass doses of sodium and blue no. 2. I love food but I hate stupid B.S. and this is clearly stupid B.S. Wow - real bananas, and as if that weren't enough, natural banana flavor added just in case the bananas they used didn't happen to have banana flavor of their own! AMAZING!!! Wait - there's more if you act now etc. etc. etc..... Did I mention I love the cereal? I'm ranting about a cereal I love and a relatively healthy one at that. Yes I need a life I suppose...


On another note I got a glimpse of what my summer will sound like with some new stuff. The new Black Sabbath - Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know and the new Church - Untitled #23. At first listen they both sound incredible. I've also picked up the new self-titled Secret Machines album and Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet. They both sound pretty good, and lastly the Raconteurs album Consolers of the Lonely is climbing back into my frequent play list as it's turning out to be more of a grower than I anticipated. What an album.

Road Trip! Music, Food, History, America.

So here is the rundown on our trip across this great country...

Thursday - We drove from West Bloomfield, MI to Horse Cave, KY and it rained buckets for the last 3 hours of the drive from Cincinnati to the hotel. Miserable. We could see the lightning off in the distance from the Skyline Chili north of Dayton. Skyline Chili http://www.skylinechili.com/ still rocks, and this began what ended up being as much of a food tour as a history tour... Pink Floyd Meddle is a great night time disc and this was a great listen. Listening to Meddle during a night time drive takes me back to the best Meddle experience I've had driving from Jerusalem to Masada in the middle of the night to get there for the climb to the top to watch the sunrise back in '94 - but I digress... We actually kicked off the trip with the 2 new Prince discs LotusFlow3r and MPLSound and these both sound great at first run through. Major potential here - 3 songs in I thought that if the first album ended right here it would already be twice as strong as Planet Earth.

Friday - We ate the complimentary breakfast at the Hampton Inn and hit the road. Thought we'd stop at a cave but it was over an hour wait and we needed to stay on course to get to Pensacola - only time for one stop, so we made it at the Hermitage just outside of Nashville. The Hermitage is Andrew Jackson's home and it is pretty impressive. http://www.thehermitage.com/ Good museum, nice grounds and the house is in great shape. They say it's one of the most well preserved presidential homes with about 90% of the furnishings, wallpaper etc. being original. Strange that I came away learning more about the actual house and history of the estate than I did about President Jackson himself. That might be my next book although I'm eyeing bios of Lincoln, Polk, and Teddy Roosevelt as well. Afterwards we got back on the road and got some Gov't Mule and Allman Brothers going for the deeper push into the South. We stopped in Bessemer, AL for BBQ at Bob Sykes. www.bobsykes.com This place is ridiculous - worth the detour if you are ever in the Birmingham, AL area. We found it on www.roadfood.com which is an awesome website. Got back on the road stuffed and ready to puke, pass out, or both. Night time driving - Porcupine Tree and The Church... rolled into Pensacola around 10:30.

Saturday - spent time with family all day and ate dinner at the Oar House - good food and live music. http://www.myspace.com/theoarhouse

Sunday - got on the road around 1 and headed to Fort Blakeley, AL. http://new.siteone.com/sites/blakeleypark.com/ Site of the last battle of the Civil War - happened later in the day after the surrender at Appomattox took place. Parts of this battlefield are really well preserved and they were having a reenactment there. Very impressive - live artillery, a full battalion assault, Union and Confederate cavalry dualing with swords on horseback. Awesome to see - like watching the Civil War happening right before your eyes. Of course got into some friendly banter with some crazy Alabama and Auburn fans. The Alabama guy was driving the bus at the park and was hardcore boy... I told him I hoped he wasn't still upset about the 2 times out of 3 that we beat them. He had respect for Michigan and didn't try to talk any SEC smack. From there we headed West and Northwest through Mobile and up to Hattiesburg, MS. Nice drive across Mobile Bay and through Mississippi. We took a little drive through the Southern Miss campus - very charming campus and a cool football stadium with Brett Farve's number retired. We ate at the Crescent City Grill http://www.nsrg.com/crescent.asp and the food was fantastic - I had the fried catfish over dirty rice smothered in crawfish etouffee and we split the New Orleans bread pudding and buttered pecan pie with a little Haagen Daaz vanilla ice cream on top. We pulled into Corinth at another Hampton Inn that night. The hotel stands on what was part of the Corinth Battlefield.

Monday - Spent the morning touring the Corinth Battlefield - more to see than I anticipated and didn't get to see it all. Horrible weather - very cold and drizzly. Drove through back country roads from there to Shiloh National Battlefield and spent a few hours there. http://www.nps.gov/shil/ Had my battlefield disc going (INXS Listen Like Thieves). Awesome battlefield. We met a man at the visitor's center whose grandfather fought in the battle. His grandfather was 18 in 1862, had this guy's dad in 1908 when he was 64, and this guy was born in 1953 when his dad was 45. It works out - you don't expect people walking around being able to say their grandpa fought at Shiloh! I suppose there could be a 90 year old walking around somewhere whose grandpa fought in the Revolution? They would have to have been born in 1919 say, to a 74 year old born in 1845 to a 73 year old born in 1772 who fought at the age of 16 in 1788... Anyway, Shiloh is perfectly preserved and totally unencumbered by commercialization of any sort. The battlefield is well marked to get a complete understanding of the fight that took place there on those two fateful days - 147 years to the day before we were standing there when it started on April 6th. The only drawback was the weather - it was freaking hailing on us! We left Shiloh and headed Northwest through beautful country roads to the Natchez Trace National Parkway http://www.nps.gov/natr/ and traveled along it for about 20 miles or so. What a scenic drive (a little REM, more Allmans and Gov't Mule), and along the way stopped at the Meriwether Lewis gravesite and monument. That evening making our way back up to Horse Cave, KY we stopped at another roadfood.com joint outside of Nashville called Sylvan Park Restaurant. Another gem - catfish, fried crab cakes, candied apples, the best mac and cheese ever, fried corn, incredible cornbread, cocunut cream pie (they threw in a couple extra slices for the road on the house) and chess pie. We had never heard of chess pie - amazing! They actually gave us their recipe so we'll be eating it again soon. http://www.roadfood.com/Reviews/Overview.aspx?RefID=472

Tuesday - Took a trip over to Abe Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home in Hodgenville, KY. http://www.nps.gov/abli/ Great visitor's center and a really impressive monument to Abe Lincoln with 56 steps for each year of his life. The actual water spring that they used for their water supply was still there and still running. From there we made one last stop in Cincinnati at William Howard Taft's boyhood home. http://www.nps.gov/wiho/ It is the only national site dedicated to Taft and it is worth the stop. I only wish we had a little more time to spend there to look through the exhibits on the upper level of the house. Roadfood directed us to the Camp Washington Chili joint in Cincinnati for the last meal of the trip. Great diner atmosphere and great 5 way chili, but while the locals might disagree with me on this one, it wasn't necessarily better than Skyline Chili.

I highly recommend taking a trip like this. You will find it incredibly relaxing, educational, and rewarding. Make the drive itself the destination and see things you normally wouldn't. The kids had a blast - it was a total adventure for them and they were exposed to so much history and culture. The people we met along the way were all friendly and helpful and we came away with a new appreciation for regions we had never experienced.